Ricardo Quaresma

[Magic8Ball]

Wonder if Chelsea have a long with an option to buy, if not we can see how he does and work out if he'd be suited to the premier league.

However, the article does say he's work shy, so that's a BIG downside.

 

Signing Ricardo Quaresma could be masterstroke for Chelsea

While Robbie Keane and Andrei Arshavin dominated the transfer headlines on Tuesday, perhaps the real deal of deadline day was one treated as barely a footnote.

 

By Rory Smith

Last Updated: 9:03PM GMT 03 Feb 2009

 

Unrealised potential: new Chelsea signing Ricardo Quaresma (left) has supreme ability but failed to live up to expectations at Inter Photo: AFP

On Monday morning, Inter Milan left Ricardo Quaresma, the Portugal winger, out of their Champions League squad. A mooted swap with Tottenham for Jermaine Jenas never materialised and, instead, with just 30 minutes until the deadline, Chelsea acquired him on loan.

Luiz Felipe Scolari, the Chelsea manager, had insisted less than 24 hours previously that he saw no reason to add to his squad. So what tempted him to change his mind?

Quaresma's track record since his £14 million move from Porto to Inter, requisitioned by Jose Mourinho, hardly justifies his arrival.

Voted the worst signing of the season by fans and chronically short of confidence, he can now add Inter to Barcelona in his list of abortive attempts to succeed at big clubs.

Mourinho admitted on Monday that his countryman had found it difficult to cope with all the criticism and was at a loss to explain his poor displays at the San Siro.

To many, with his slicked-back hair and tendency to over-elaboration, Quaresma is Cristiano Ronaldo without the end product. Scolari, who worked with him for six years as Portugal manager, knows better.

He may have struggled at Barcelona, but he shone at Porto, where his coach Jesualdo Ferreira treated him with kid gloves.

He is a bag of tricks, famed for his trivela – crossing with the outside of his boot – and rabona – hitting the ball by wrapping his right foot around his left. On his day, he is magical, unpredictable and every bit as talented as Ronaldo.

Sadly, there is a down side, the reason Mourinho farmed him out and Rafael Benitez twice spurned the chance to take him to Liverpool. Quaresma does not work.

Both the former Chelsea manager and the current Liverpool manager demand that their wingers never shirk defensive duties. This is where Ronaldo and Quaresma, two years his senior, differ.

Sir Alex Ferguson harnessed Ronaldo's energy. Quaresma remains true to his first nickname, 'Mustang'. He runs free.

But another workhorse is what Chelsea do not need, and that is why the loan move has all the hallmarks of a masterstroke. On a good day, Quaresma could transform those games at Stamford Bridge where Chelsea are frustrated by a massed defence into routs.

If Scolari can elicit the best out of his former protege, Chelsea could yet return to the title race. If not, he returns to Inter at the end of the season. It is a win-win situation.

Sadly absent from such issues are the team who were supposed to sweep all before them in January, Manchester City.

For all their oil billions, they failed to hijack the Arshavin deal or lodge a bid for Keane. They still have not signed a central defender.

Money, it turns out, is a double-edged sword. They paid over the odds for Nigel de Jong (£18 million) and Craig Bellamy (£14 million), and even signing Wayne Bridge, a reserve full-back from Chelsea, set them back £12 million.

They refused to be held over a barrel for Roque Santa Cruz. They were humiliated by Kaka.

Mark Hughes, the City manager, and his chief executive, Garry Cook, have both been at pains to point out their successes in this window, but the reality is much less optimistic.

Their reinforcements will be enough to ensure there is no relegation battle at the world's richest club and may even take them into Europe. But what of the future?

The club insist no signing will be made who does not fit into their long-term vision. But those players they did land give the lie to that claim.

What do Bellamy and Bridge have in common? They have both been proven not good enough for the highest level. De Jong and Shay Given? Fine players, no doubt, but both overlooked by Arsene Wenger when he had the chance to sign them.

How do you break into the top four with a squad of their cast-offs, has-beens and never-will-bes, as no less an authority than City devotee Liam Gallagher once put it? The simple answer? You don't.

Cigano finds new home...

A part-Romany heritage has earned Ricardo Quaresma, 25, the nickname 'Cigano’ – Portuguese for gypsy.

He graduated from Sporting Lisbon’s academy and after helping win a league and cup double, joined Barcelona in 2003. Fell out with coach Frank Rijkaard, and joined Porto in 2004, where his style was compared to Cristiano Ronaldo. Signed for Inter Milan in Sept 2008 but confidence evaporated when he lost support of the fans.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/...or-Chelsea.html

[Hassony]

Rafa spoke to him last summer according to quaresma himself, but didn't buy him as quaresma refused to change his style of play (work harder, less fancy stuff)

 

the fact that he has been a failure at both Barca and Inter should tell us that he doesn't have the mentality to play for a big club

[Magic8Ball]

Rafa spoke to him last summer according to quaresma himself, but didn't buy him as quaresma refused to change his style of play (work harder, less fancy stuff)

 

the fact that he has been a failure at both Barca and Inter should tell us that he doesn't have the mentality to play for a big club

Almost certainly true, however during his time at Chelsea we'll have the opportunity to put to bed (or otherwise) the Quaresma myth

[Hassony]

Almost certainly true, however during his time at Chelsea we'll have the opportunity to put to bed (or otherwise) the Quaresma myth

 

 

I don't know about that, Kaizer will always be a believer in the legend of Quaresma

[Gerry]

I don't know about that, Kaizer will always be a believer in the legend of Quaresma

 

I bet you somewhere, on a Liverpool forum far far away, he's spitting teeth that we didn't make a bid to sign Quaresma instead of Chelsea.

[Magic8Ball]

I think with players like Quaresma "big clubs" have to get them soon before they become the focal point for a smaller club and subsequently get ruined. That way you can remove this "ego" problem before it takes root. Like Keane, Quaresma needs to get lots of the ball and and do what ever he wants without repercussion.

 

Developmentally this shows poor regulation and Sports wise poor team ethic. Sometimes however, players can catch up developmentally both in the mental sense and the physical sense. For example, take Reira, he's growing and developing his game, in a physical sense, at the age of 27. That's rare, but it can happen. For Quaresma to develop he needs to swallow his pride, accept the evidence he's not the best in the world, improve his work rate and tackle back.

 

Watching Quaresma at Chelsea will be interesting, especially to see if he's a late developer or a no developer. Will he languish, or will he flourish?

[Minder78]

A manager of a team i played on told one of the players he had "balls like ducks feet - yellow". It was a pretty big insult, i think, and one you would attribute to Quaresma.

[Magic8Ball]

"I am disappointed with him," said Mourinho after Inter's match against Torino on Sunday. "He is a player that I wanted in Milan but, unfortunately, he has not been able to overcome the criticism directed at him. Without confidence in oneself, it becomes more difficult.

 

"He needs to have the psychological strength to overcome the criticism that will definitely come his way. The first time he played at the San Siro he had an excellent game against Catania and scored. All of us thought it was the start of a great journey, but now we know that fans at the Meazza [san Siro] are demanding and Ricardo needs to have the mental strength to overcome the fear of playing."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/fe...uaresma-chelsea

Interesting

[Sion]

If there's one set of fans that no longer have any patience, it's Chelsea fans. They'll be criticising him after him first touch.

[matty]

He was utter crap for Inter. Good riddance to him. Mourinho must really have it in for Chelsea to send him there.

[beejay]

It's interesting that Rafa did consider him last year & tried to buy Lennon right up until the last day of the transfer window.

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

I love articles like that:

 

"could be", "perhaps the deal of the tfr window...."

 

in other words - lots of words with little substance.

 

He failed in Spain & Italy & probably won't like it 'on a cold Ferbruary night in Bolton'.

 

 

Maybe he'll do well, maybe Malouda will too...

[Tones]

I think with players like Quaresma "big clubs" have to get them soon before they become the focal point for a smaller club and subsequently get ruined. That way you can remove this "ego" problem before it takes root. Like Keane, Quaresma needs to get lots of the ball and and do what ever he wants without repercussion.

 

Developmentally this shows poor regulation and Sports wise poor team ethic. Sometimes however, players can catch up developmentally both in the mental sense and the physical sense. For example, take Reira, he's growing and developing his game, in a physical sense, at the age of 27. That's rare, but it can happen. For Quaresma to develop he needs to swallow his pride, accept the evidence he's not the best in the world, improve his work rate and tackle back.

 

Watching Quaresma at Chelsea will be interesting, especially to see if he's a late developer or a no developer. Will he languish, or will he flourish?

 

Maybe im not reading this right, but he went to Barca at a very young age and just couldnt break through.

[stressederic]

Maybe im not reading this right, but he went to Barca at a very young age and just couldnt break through.

 

And got into an argument with the manager and refused to play.

[Magic8Ball]

Maybe im not reading this right, but he went to Barca at a very young age and just couldnt break through.

good catch, thanks for that.

He left early before his development was complete, hence not being able to handle not being the star. Some can argue ( convincingly) that he left because he lacked the bottle. The point is these players need to learn team ethic before they become the focal point of lesser teams and their ego stunts their emotional development.